Featured Study
Mapping Scorpion Activity Across Metro Phoenix: A 25-Year Field Study
Population-adjusted observation data collected from 1999 to 2025 reveals how scorpion pressure has moved across the Valley.
The study.
Twenty-five years of field-collected records, gathered into a single long-run picture of activity, heat, growth, and the built edge of the desert.
Scorpion pressure in the Phoenix Valley is usually described one season or one neighborhood at a time. This study sets against that a continuous record of field-collected observation, population-adjusted so that changes in activity can be read separately from changes in population.
At a glance
- Period
- 1999 to 2025
- Coverage
- Greater Phoenix metro
- Method
- Population-adjusted observation data
- Cadence
- Year-round, season by season
- Lead researcher
- Georgia A. Clubb
Methodology.
The record is observational. It was gathered in the field by Seal Out Scorpions across the Phoenix metro area, and it is built from what homeowners reported rather than from modeled estimates.
- Inbound reports. The underlying signal is homeowner inquiries and reports, counting both service calls and contacts that never became jobs.
- Population-normalized. Activity is weighed against residential population density instead of raw counts, so a zip code does not look busier simply because more people live in it.
- Consistently intaken. The same intake practices were applied across the whole period, which is what allows the early years and the recent ones to be set beside each other.
- Long-run. A continuous record from 1999 through 2025, mapped by zip code.
The numeric dataset behind the map has not been published. The findings below are the qualitative patterns Seal Out Scorpions reports from it; figures and confidence intervals follow with the data.
Key findings.
The headline result is movement. Scorpion pressure across the Valley has not simply risen or fallen, it has spread out and filled in.
From pockets to a continuous field
Activity that once concentrated in identifiable areas now reads as more continuous across the metro, rather than clustering the way it used to.
The quiet gaps are closing
The quieter stretches that used to separate busier areas are fewer now. The map has less empty space in it than it did.
It reached neighborhoods that were spared before
Pressure has extended into affluent areas that had been largely shielded from it, neighborhoods which historically saw comparatively little scorpion activity.
Activity index by year
1999-2025Collected 1999 to 2025.
Across the greater Phoenix metro.
The curve above is illustrative of shape only. The live map carries the real distribution; the numeric series takes its place once the dataset publishes.
Regional shifts over time.
The long record makes comparison possible: the 1999 to 2016 picture set against the present distribution across Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Chandler, Tempe and the surrounding zip codes. Reading them side by side is what turns a map into a finding.
Several forces are put forward for why pressure has grown. None of them acts alone, and most are consequences of how the Valley has been built and maintained.
- Building, redevelopment and remodeling that opens up shelter and structural voids
- Landscaping and irrigation choices that sustain the prey scorpions feed on
- Changes in which pest control products are used, and how they are applied
- Warm seasons running longer, alongside shifting weather patterns
- More hardscape and artificial turf, altering how heat and moisture sit around a property
Compared periods
1999 to 2016
Current
Interactive distribution map.
Scorpion activity by zip code, 1999 to 2025, with the historical comparison built in. Pan and zoom to read a specific area.
How to read it
Shading reflects reported activity relative to residential population, not raw report counts. A denser area and a quieter one can be compared directly.
What it is not
- A population count of scorpions
- A live monitoring feed
- A guarantee that scorpions are or are not present at a given address
- A forecast
Citation & data notes.
The study is cited as a Pest Science Group field record. A formal citation with a dataset identifier will be issued when the data publishes.
To request the dataset, methodology detail, or an interview about the study, use the collaborate page.
Provisional citation, pending publication
Clubb, G. A. Mapping Scorpion Activity Across Metro Phoenix: A 25-Year Field Study. Pest Science Group. Field data collected 1999 to 2025, population-normalized.
Data notes
- Observational data from inbound homeowner reports, collected in the field by Seal Out Scorpions.
- Normalized against residential population density, not raw counts.
- Mapped by zip code across the Phoenix metro area.
- Collection is ongoing; the map reflects the current record.